Holmes and Watson return in Art in the Blood
Art in the Blood: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure
by Bonnie MacBird
Publisher: Collins Crime Club
Pub Date: October 6, 2015
Description
London. A snowy December, 1888. Sherlock Holmes, 34, is languishing and back on cocaine after a disastrous Ripper investigation. Watson can neither comfort nor rouse his friend – until a strangely encoded letter arrives from Paris.
Mlle La Victoire, a beau tiful French cabaret star writes that her illegitimate son by an English lord has disappeared, and she has been attacked in the streets of Montmartre .
Racing to Paris with Watson at his side, Holmes discovers the missing child is only the tip of the iceberg of a much larger problem. The most valuable statue since the Winged Victory has been violently stolen in Marseilles, and several children from a silk mill in Lancashire have been found murdered. The clues in all three cases point to a single, untouchable man.
Will Holmes recover in time to find the missing boy and stop a rising tide of murders? To do so he must stay one step ahead of a dangerous French rival and the threatening interference of his own brother, Mycroft.
This latest adventure, in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, sends the iconic duo from London to Paris and the icy wilds of Lancashire in a case which tests Watson's friendship and the fragility and gifts of Sherlock Holmes' own artistic nature to the limits.
Review
As Conan Doyle's iconic characters are public domain, many authors have written novels detailing new adventures. Bonnie MacBird's novel Art in the Blood is an excellent tribute to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. She does justice to Holmes and Watson is creating an adventure stylistically similar to Doyle but at the same time entirely unique. Any fan of Sherlock Holmes would be proud to own this volume.
Boredom is anathema to Sherlock Holmes, and the days after the disastrous Ripper Investigation are empty driving him into a deep depression and a cocaine induced stupor. Only the arrival of an encoded note is of enough interest to bring him out of his shell.
Mlle La Victoire, a beautiful French cabaret star, writes of the disappearance of her illegitimate son. The boy resides with his father, a powerful English lord suspected of being involved in numerous art thefts, particularly that of a statue more valuable than the Winged Victory that has recently disappeared from Marseilles. The art theft interests Sherlock far less than the case of the boy, but Mycroft Holmes has his own agenda, his own reasons for Sherlock to pursue the case.
A number of other children in Lancashire have been found murdered. The clues point to the same powerful, untouchable man.
I greatly enjoyed Art in the Blood. Bonnie MacBird clearly thrives on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works, and has done a wonderful job characterizing the central figures. I highly recommend Art in the Blood to anyone who enjoys Sherlock Holmes or a solid mystery/adventure.
5/5
I received a copy of Art in the Blood from Collins Crime Club in exchange for an honest review.
--Crittermom
